Few teams are as far away from earning a trip to the NHL Playoffs as the Columbus Blue Jackets are, and it’s likely they won’t be in serious contention to snag a playoff berth until at least 2026. And when most hockey fans think about the Blue Jackets, it’s often an obscure franchise associated with perpetual losing.
So those who don’t follow the organization may be surprised to hear Columbus doesn’t rank in the league’s basement at the moment in terms of playoff series wins. Sure, they’re much closer to the bottom than they are the top, but the Blue Jackets have won two playoff series since 2009, putting them at 28th in the NHL alongside the Minnesota Wild.
A small number indeed, but one of those wins may have factored in as among the most historic upsets in postseason history when they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning four games to zero in the 2019 playoffs.
Will the Blue Jackets win another playoff series in the 2020s?
Besides their historic win in 2019, the Blue Jackets also started off the new decade in a winning fashion when they also beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2020. Then came a return to irrelevance that hasn’t seen Columbus earn more than 81 points in a single season between 2020-21 and 2023-24. But they have a couple of star players to build around.
Johnny Gaudreau and Adam Fantilli are a pair of forwards who should have the Blue Jackets ahead of teams like the Anaheim Ducks and the Chicago Blackhawks, so there is at least something. They only need to keep working toward building the foundation correctly, primarily around Fantilli, and those wins will come.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the Blue Jackets probably won’t be ready for playoff contention until 2026, but they may not solidify themselves as surefire contenders until 2027. But that still gives them another three seasons in the 2020s to add a few more playoff series wins to those they’ve garnered since 2009.
(Additional information provided by Hockey-Reference)